WINONA LAKE – The fourth of six summertime Village at Winona Festival of Music performances will feature barbershop music. The Barbershop Festival will take place at 3 p.m. Aug. 7 in the Winona Heritage Room, 901 Park Ave., Winona Lake. Tickets are available at Rocket Fizz, Pottery Bayou and at the door. Prices are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for students.
2015 International Quartet Champions, Instant Classic, will headline the event. Summit City Chorus of Fort Wayne, Chain-O-Lakes Men’s Barbershop Chorus of Columbia City and Optimist Singers of Warsaw also will perform. Following individual performances, all groups will join together to sing the Barbershop Harmony Society theme song “Keep the Whole World Singing,” according to a press release from Grace College.
Since its founding in 1938, the Barbershop Harmony Society has promoted and preserved barbershop music as an art form. Today over 23,000 men in the United States and Canada are members of the society whose focus is a cappella music, the release states.
In addition to the 3 p.m. concert, individual quartets from Chain-O-Lakes, Summit City Chorus and the Warsaw Optimist Singers will give short performances in the Village at Winona. Performances will begin at 1 p.m.
Marty Becker, Festival of Music coordinator, encourages the public to come early and enjoy the preshow quartets. “What better way to enjoy a Sunday afternoon in Winona Lake?” Becker said. “The best barbershop quartets in the region will surprise shoppers and diners with their beautiful a cappella music around the Village until the concert begins in the Heritage Room at three o’clock.”
Grace College, Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts and the Village at Winona have partnered to bring the community high-quality, family-friendly concerts throughout the summer. The series, sponsored in part by the Esther Pfleiderer Charitable Trust and 1st Source Bank, includes six concerts through Sept. 3. For more information, visit www.grace.edu/musicfestival.
